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First published in 1548, the Spritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola have been a seminal influence in Christian spirituality over the succeeding centuries. Their fruits can be seen in the almost incredibel achievements of generation after generation of Jesuit Missionaries, preachers and teachers working in many different cultures across the inhabited world, all of whom had received their formation through the Spiritual Exercises.Today the Spiritual Exercises and the tradition of spirituality that they represent are perhaps more popular than ever. This clasic text of the sixteenth century still has a part to play.This edition of the Spiritual Exercises presents a contemporary translation by Michael Ivens, a noted authority on the text and author of the best-selling commentary 'Understanding the Spiritual Exercises'. Combining scholarly accuracy and a clear attractive style, here is a definitive translation for the beginning of the twenty-first century.

John Henry Newman's Essays Critical and Historical are articles he originally wrote between 1829 and 1846 and later collected together and republished in 1871. In them Newman deals with some of the key theological issues of his day. They show both the consistency of his theological principles and the trajectory of their development during the Oxford Movement. The essays are more combative than his title suggests¿Newman engages with his subjects with vigour, forensic skill, wit, and even satire. We can also detect the approaching crisis of his Anglican belief and his conversion to the Catholic Church in 1845. Many of Newman's insights have turned out to be prophetic about the controversies of 20th and 21st century Christianity. This is the first critical edition of this work. The Editor has provided an Introduction setting each essay in its context and giving a critical analysis of it. There are also detailed Editor's Notes to the text, explaining the theological, literary and historical references which are often obscure to the modern reader. A comprehensive Textual Appendix reveals for the first time how radically Newman revised some of the essays for his 1871 edition.

First published in 1939, this book is a phenomenon in contemporary spiritual writing. The message that every Christian man and woman, whatever their place of work or calling, is called to sanctity has touched countless lives; this work offers a starting-point for a prayer which finds Christ in all the experience of living. A special feature of this new edition is the footnotes, drafted not only for those approaching the book as a tool to help them pray, but having in mind also readers studying the text as an example of 20th Century Spanish literature. This is a revised annotated bilingual edition, has parallel Spanish and English texts.

Many writers on the spiritual life have used the analogy of climbing a ladder, as we progress towards that degree of perfection which Our Lord demands of us, 'Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect' (Matthew 5:48). It must originate in the story of Jacob's Ladder, on which he saw the angels ascending and descending -and since humility is the key to all virtue, who is to say whether we should be trying to go up, or to go down.St Benedict is the most familiar of those writers who speak of the Ladder of Humility (chapter 7 of his Rule). There are twelve steps, and that at once makes us look out for other things that go in sets of twelve. There are twelve Apostles, of course, and they respond to the twelve Tribes of Israel. There are twelve Minor Prophets. In St Paul there are twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit , and in the earliest Christian writings after the New Testament itself, we find the Shepherd of Hermas, which speaks of twelve virgins, who are virtues, opposed to twelve women who are vices. Another very important document from this period, which has been strangely neglected, is the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, which again looks at twelve virtues and their opposites.The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs are worth reading, as the text seems to be the very first systematic Christian treatise on moral theology: the twelve Patriarchs each discourse about some aspect of virtue or vice. It is written in the form of 'Testaments' or last speeches by the twelve sons of Jacob, addressed to their family gathered around them, each on his deathbed, on the model of the Biblical testament of Jacob. Written in Greek, and dated to the very end of the first century, it is seen as a Christian work, using the literary form of a pseudepigraphon (a device by which the real author attributes his writing to authoritative figures from the past to give it greater significance). Some earlier scholars thought it to be a Jewish text, but with a few Christian interpolations; if it really is a pre-Christian work, we would have to place it among St Paul's favourite books, for he seems to quote it many times.In fact, whether the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is a late Jewish book which only survives in an early Christian edition, or a new composition by an early Christian drawing on Jewish predecessors, matters not a jot. The fact that early Christians edited it or wrote it, and certainly read it, is very significant. It is an important witness to the Early Church, it shows what the second or third generation of Christians thought and believed about the path to virtue, and acts as a guide to the contemporary Christian today.

Newman's Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine is one of the most ground-breaking and influential theological works since the Reformation. Written in the lead up to Newman's conversion from the Anglican to the Catholic Church, it traces how early Christianity developed into Catholicism and has been described as doing for theology what Darwin did for biology. It is frequently referenced in debates about how Church teaching develops-what is authentic development and what isn't. "A more intimate apprehension of original dogma" was John Henry Newman's verdict on his Essay on the Development of Christian Dogma. He completed it in 1845 and thirty-three years later thoroughly revised it. The two versions are here compared in a new edition, tracing the process of Newman's developing thoughts-with footnotes and appendices to bring out the importance of this seminal work, which in theological terms ranks alongside The Origin of Species. This is the first critical edition of the Essay. The editor, Newman scholar James Tolhurst, provides detailed notes on the many patristic and historical references in the text which may baffle the modern reader. In an illuminating Introduction he sets the historical context and summarises Newman's idea of development. He also teases out the many revisions which Newman made to his original 1845 text when he revised it in 1878. The result is an edition which makes this classic text accessible both for Newman scholars and for the general reader.

A PREVIOUSLY UNRECOGNISED CATEGORY of victims is identified in this new study into the Catholic Church's child sex abuse scandals: the Church's own non-offending priests. A detailed analysis of the perspectives of a select group of representative priests reveals that the scandals and the Church's often unsatisfactory handling of them have left significant psychological scars which the Church and even many clergy themselves have yet to recognise and address. Revd Dr Barry O'Sullivan, who is both a serving priest and a qualified counsellor, finds in his series of carefully controlled interviews with fellow priests that his beleaguered brotherhood should be classed among the secondary victims of this ongoing crisis for the Church. Originally undertaken as a doctoral study for the University of Manchester, this work casts new light on the far-reaching effects which this type of crisis can potentially inflict not just on Catholic priests but also on professionals in all walks of life which have been assailed by child sex abuse scandals.

This book presents a selection of the best of the weekly'Pastor Iuventus' columns from The Catholic Herald.Arranged over a year, the columns give us a true-lifepicture of the ministry of a parish priest in a busy city. The diaryconvincingly conveys the tangible and day-to-day reality of apriest's life and work. The journal is about the endless fascinationsof parish life: the highs and lows, births and deaths, newchallenges, and, amongst all these, the quiet presence of God.The author tells it as it is, with candour and insight, but also withhumour and brilliance. Through the everyday life of the parish,the local hospital and the school, we are given an intimateportrayal of real life. The reader will be moved and inspired by thebeauty and depth of these weekly columns. As the year unfolds,the journal reminds us of the closeness of the Providence of Godto every human life.As Dr William Oddie says in the Foreword to the first edition,Father Allain's diary column provides readers with "an often vividinside track on the spiritual life of a parish priest, in a way whichcertainly conveys its pressures and difficulties, but which alsonurtures the spiritual imagination of its readers by demonstratingthat those pressures and difficulties can always - with a simpleand basic faith in the realities of a working Catholic spirituality -be withstood and transcended."Fr Dominic Allain was ordained priest for the Archdiocese ofSouthwark. Now the International Pastoral Director for 'Grief toGrace' - a programme which brings spiritual and psychological healingto survivors of sexual and other abuse (www.grieftograceuk.org), healso works as a retreat giver and spiritual director. This book draws onhis experiences as a parish priest and hospital chaplain in the Londonarea. He is well-known to many through his weekly columns, 'PastorIuventus', in The Catholic Herald.

Every day of the year is a day for the Lord, but also for His Blessed Mother, Mary. Daily, Daily Sing to Mary lies in the tradition of the Marian Calendar, a collection of feasts honouring the Blessed Virgin Mary. Each day brings to mind the actions the Mother of God has undertaken on behalf of Christians of all nations and kingdoms throughout the ages. The story for each day of the year also brings a lesson for us. The original Marian Calendar was first published when King Louis XIV of France was still a boy, and it is in reality a collection of famous sites of pilgrimage to the Blessed Virgin throughout all of Christendom. This work is offered to the Christian world for the hundredth anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima. The accounts provide abundant proof that Mary, the Mother of God, has indeed claimed the hearts of Christians from the earliest centuries down to the present day. They are also evidence of the value of the Blessed Mother's influence and mediation on the behalf of her children before the throne of God. In these pages, for each day of the year, we have endeavoured to list a particular miracle, apparition, conversion, or healing which took place on that day through the maternal hands of Our Lady. On occasions we also recall events in which Our Lady saved people from all kinds of danger, at sea or on land. We have also documented simple events, like the finding of a Marian image, which may not seem in themselves to be miraculous, but point to a deep care which the Mother of God has for her Son's people. We have taken episodes from all parts of the world in a truly Catholic way, showing that Our Lady has influenced so many people's lives and often in non-Catholic and even non-Christian lands.

The received wisdom is that no friendly contact between Anglicans and Roman Catholics existed from the Reformation until the Second Vatican Council - with the exception of the Malines Conversations hosted by Cardinal Mercier in Belgium in the 1920s. This work conclusively rebuts that assumption. Based on recently discovered archival material, it describes in detail highly-confidential Conversations on the subject of Reunion which took place in London in the early 1930s between an impressive team of officially-sanctioned Catholic prelates and scholarly, if somewhat eccentric, Anglicans disturbed as much by moral as doctrinal concerns. The Conversations explode the myth that the English Catholic hierarchy of the period was uniformly hostile to ecumenical contact. These ground-breaking discussions challenge us today to re-examine the nature of the Church and authority, and to re-assess the objectives of ecumenism. At a time when the endeavour appears to have lost impetus, this book is an incentive for us to regain the imperative of Christ that all His disciples might be one.

In a world which employs the most sacred terms with little reverence or appreciation God of the Exercises: A Director's Diary-Directory during the Spiritual Exercises of Thirty Days suggests the use of ordinary human exercises of mind and body to discover God.Paul Dominic reveals how the gift of directing the Exercises calls upon all of us to be willing to have our hearts changed, to recognize the gift of God at each moment of this journey, to see with new eyes the realities of our lives and cultures… May this book inspire all of us called to this ministry to recognize the gift of God in our calling. Nancy Y. Sheridan SASVThe Indian context is an especially strong feature of this book, partly from the use of Hindu terms and partly from an appreciation of what devout Hindus can teach us… There is much to be learned from God of the Exercises because it demonstrates, through one man's personal experience, what in practice the giving of the Exercises entails. Joseph A.Munitiz, SJ Former Master, Campion Hall, OxfordI have read completely God of the Exercises, and reread several parts of it. I admire both the frankness and candour and the depth of background learning that runs through it. In fact, while I had consulted the footnotes while reading the text, after finishing it I went back to look at those notes again because they impressed me in the range and quality of sources used therein to enrich the author's own reflection. John Padberg, SJ &am

Christianity has been firmly established in Iraq for nearly two thousand years, but from the fourth century to the present day Christians in Iraq have faced periods of terrible persecution. This book brings together their stories, from the witness of martyrs sixteen hundred years ago, across the centuries, to our own time. In the twenty-first century Iraqi Christians have been confronted by relentless terrorist attack, by genocide and exile from their homeland. Alongside accounts of martyrdom and massacre under the Persian and Ottoman Empires and, in the twentieth century, the newly independent Kingdom of Iraq, Robert Ewan records the heart-rending stories of just some of the myriad of contemporary martyrs: Sister Cecilia Moshi Hanna, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni and of the massacre at Sayidat al-Najat Church in Baghdad.

This is the true story of four courageous men who played pivotal roles in the religious and political struggles which nearly ripped England apart, from Henry VIII's break with Rome in the 1530's through the Civil Wars and the Restoration of 1660. John Hampden, "The Patriot", was a Puritan member of Parliament who reluctantly fought against King Charles I; his friend and relative the Reverend Robert Lenthall left England's shores only to return home, disillusioned, barely three years later. Two of the Reverend's relatives, the Speaker of the House of Commons William Lenthall, and the Speaker's uncle St Robert Southwell, also played their parts in the political and religious upheavals of the times. The Speaker defended Hampden and four other men accused of treason by boldly asserting the rights of the House of Commons when Charles invaded it in January of 1642, a moment remembered forever in the annals of the Commons. But he also abandoned the faith of his ancestors to cling to power under the Puritan Parliament during the Civil Wars, a source of bitter regret at the end of his life. His uncle St Robert Southwell, a Jesuit priest, poet and writer of some renown, paid the highest price of all these men for the freedom of conscience, dying as a martyr at Tyburn for the crime of being a Catholic priest. In a world in which religion was absolutely central to the individual, at a time when all Englishmen were forced to choose irrevocable political and religious paths according to their consciences, they all risked imprisonment or martyrdom; but their sacrifices ultimately led to the enshrinement of the ideas of freedom of speech and religion which are now the bedrock of the political systems of the entire English-speaking world.